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Activities
Before reading
Prior knowledge
Revise Unit 3 of I-E-KO-KO! where students learned the numbers 11–20. Discuss the language targets for Unit 16 – ‘oku, tene, and tārā – and show the shopping scenario from the DVD for that unit. Ask some questions in Cook Islands Māori about the foods and their prices in the scenario.
Make a table (as shown below) on the whiteboard, and ask the students to help you fill in the left-hand column with the names of three or four ethnic groups. In the right-hand column, record students’ ideas about traditional foods of each ethnic group.
| Name of ethnic group | Name of traditional food |
|---|---|
Ask them about any “traditional” foods that are favourites in their own families.
Pronunciation of new language
Check the words in the glossary (on the inside back cover of the book), which may be new to you. If possible, ask a native speaker of Cook Islands Māori to model the correct pronunciation of any unfamiliar words for you and the students. This person could read the story to you and the class as the first reading, or you could record them reading it and play it to the class.
Introducing the book
As a class, look at the book’s cover. Ask the students:
- What do you predict the story will be about? What does the title tell us? What does the picture tell us?
Discuss the picture of the plant in the thought bubble. Ask the students:
- Do you know the name of that plant in English?
- Do you know its name in Cook Islands Māori, or in any other Pasifika language?
Learning intentions
Share the learning intentions or co-construct them with your students. Some examples of possible learning intentions for reading this story are given below.
After reading the text, I will be able to:
- identify Cook Islands Māori terms for some fruits and vegetables in a story
- ask and answer questions about where items are and how much they cost
- describe rūkau and explain why Māmā Rū‘au wants it so much
- explain aspects of the relationship between a grandparent and a grandchild in the Cook Islands culture.
Talk about how the students will know they have met their learning intentions and decide on success criteria together.
Reading the text
Read the story aloud to the students. Ask the students to record (in a list) the name of the foods they hear (for example, rūkau, ‘ānani, tuka …).
After the reading, discuss the lists as a class and create a master list with the names of all the fruits and vegetables in the story again. Then read the story and have the students follow, identifying each fruit or vegetable on the list when it is named in the story.
- Now, in pairs, have the students read the story themselves. Their reading task is to notice the relationship between the grandparent (Māmā Rū‘au) and grandchild (Poko‘ina). How do they relate to each other? How do they feel about each other? How can the reader tell? Each pair shares their conclusions, and their evidence from the story, with another pair. The new groups of four record their ideas to refer to later (in the Grandparent–Grandchild Relationship activity below).
- The students now read the text independently. Their reading task is to follow the plot of the story – what happens and why? How is the problem resolved?
After reading
Ask the students whether they enjoyed this story. What did they like and/or dislike about it?
The importance of traditional foods
Talk about the plot, with its focus on supplying rūkau for Pāpā Rū‘au. Ask the students the following questions:
- What is rūkau?
- Does Pāpā Rū‘au get rūkau?
- How does he get it?
- What is he going to do with it?
- Why does he like rūkau so much?
Discuss and record some reasons why people who have come to live in a new country might want to enjoy the familiar food of their homeland. The students could write a paragraph, in Cook Islands Māori or English, explaining why Pāpā Rū‘au loves rūkau OR why someone they know values a traditional food of their culture.
The grandparent–grandchild relationship
Ask each group of four students to share their ideas about the relationship between the grandmother (Māmā Rū‘au) and grandchild (Poko‘ina) in the story.
Ask the students whether they know anyone who was raised by their grandparents, and discuss the tradition of an older grandchild going to live with their grandparents. Ask the students what they like and what they find difficult or different that they think the grandparents, grandchildren, and other family members may experience, referring to what they noticed about Māmā Rū‘au and Poko‘ina in the story.
Record the students’ responses in a table like the one below.
| What students like | What students find difficult or different |
|---|---|
Asking about items – Where? How much?
Revise asking and saying where particular items are, using the structure on pages 3 and 6–7 in the story: Tei ‘ea te ___? Te ___ te ____!
Have at least ten cards prepared that each show the name of a different food item and the price per kilo or per container, for example:
- tuka – $2.00 ‘i te pū‘ao
- punu pūakatoro – $4.00 ‘i te punu
- ‘ānani – $2.50 ‘i te kīro
Hold up one card and ask a student “ ‘Ea‘a te moni ‘i tērā?” The students should answer with full sentences, for example, “ ‘E ‘ā tārā ‘i te punu” or “ ‘E rua tārā ē rima nga‘uru tene ‘i te kīro”.
When the students understand the pattern, they can continue with this activity themselves in groups. This is the beginning of holding a simple “shopping” conversation. Students could then go on to set up a “shop” in the classroom and role-play buying and selling the items.
Reflecting on the learning
Ask the students, “Would you feel confident using Cook Islands Māori to buy something in a real shop in the Cook Islands?” “Why or why not?” “If not, how could you reach that goal?” Listen to the strategies they suggest and then provide opportunities where students could implement them and reach that new goal.
In pairs, the students can share what they have learned about the Cook Islands culture. Ask each student to state one cultural aspect that they have learned and to compare it with how things are done in their own culture or another culture that they know of. (For example, they may have identified that Cook Islands Māori grandchildren expect their grandparent to tell them what to do or that older people who have moved to New Zealand from the Cook Islands love the foods that remind them of their childhood.)